Diaspora is a networking service currently in closed beta, after having been founded in 2010 by four students at a New York university. Unfortunately, one of these four founders will not be able to see the project through, reports TechCrunch. The news has also been posted on the Neowin Forums.
Last night, news from around the technology community on the internet suggested that Ilya Zhitomirskiy, one of the four people responsible for founding the project, passed away. After TechCrunch reached out to the Diaspora team to verify the information, it was confirmed to be true. Ilya's cause of death is currently not known, but it is a saddening time for the technology community in general, since he was a mere twenty-two years of age, and had a potentially bright future in the business sector.
Coming up with words to say about the passing of Ilya Zhitomirskiy is difficult, since it is difficult to know what he could have achieved in the future. We can only send our best wishes to the entire Diaspora team, Ilya's family and friends, and the three colleagues he helped create the network with. The tech community can achieve great things and we have undoubtedly lost someone who could have helped create even greater things in the future.
UPDATE: According to @BreakingNews, Zhitomirskiy committed suicide. The tweet can be read here. CNN also carries an article here.
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